


Reflection

by Rose Argent (roseargent)



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mount Ordeals, Not Canon Compliant - Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Post-Game(s), Pre-Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 09:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10511151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseargent/pseuds/Rose%20Argent
Summary: Cecil and Rosa find out where Kain has gone after the end of the journey, and are having none of that.





	

**Author's Note:**

> You gave me a lot of really interesting ideas to chew on, I hope you like what I did with them!
> 
> The DS version of the game is the one I used as my main source.

"Mount Ordeals? You're quite certain?" 

The messenger bowed again, nervous sweat on his brow, and Cecil wondered what he might have heard to make him so fearful of delivering unhappy news to the King of Baron. "Yes, Your Majesty. A man in the armour of a Dragoon of Baron was seen ascending, but has not yet returned."

"Thank you." Cecil waved over a page, instructing him to see the man to the Seneschal, to be paid for his efforts. Visibly relieved, the messenger fled the throne room on the page's heels. 

Rosa laid a hand on his arm. "Surely the undead of Mount Ordeals are no great threat to Kain."

"No, I imagine not." Cecil sat back in his throne, closing his eyes for a moment. "But there was much I never told him. It never seemed the time, and now..."

_Let it be your strength, though it be the last of mine._

What remained of his father on Mount Ordeals, if that was so? What awaited Kain in the mirrored chamber, if he entered it now?

"You wish to go after him." Rosa was smiling at him, when Cecil looked over at her. "Well enough. The most urgent business here is done, surely we can leave matters to our fine Court for a few days."

"Thank you, Rosa."

Rosa's smile became at once fierce and sad, then, and she said, "There are things I waited too long to say to Kain, as well."

It was by no means as simple as it sounded, of course, for the King and Queen to leave their Kingdom, even for a short time. Though not an official state visit, word still had to be sent to Mysidia. The Court wanted plans in place for emergencies, and for catastrophes should the emergency plans fail. The Dragoons got word of the trip and its purpose and had to be dissuaded from accompanying them en masse. Negotiations regarding the number and disposition of the soldiers they _would_ take were lengthy, and indeed by the time that was settled Mysidia had responded favourably to their request.

***

It seemed that Mount Ordeals was capable of producing an endless supply of undead for Kain to test himself against. Or perhaps it was the same undead over and over again, rising up again while Kain slept--he had no magic with which to make certain of their defeat, after all. But though he wore himself to exhaustion every day fighting them, the dreams still came at night. His body was honed to finer edge than ever before, but his mind and spirit remained weak, mired in darkness. 

If he did not enter the stone monument soon, he would have to admit to himself that he lacked the courage to face the true Ordeal of the mountain. It was that, more than feeling truly ready, that at last drove Kain across the final bridge to the strange structure at the end of the path. 

The inside was not what he expected, to say the least--it was like being back in the depths of the Lunarian moon, though without the pervasive, oppressive sense of Zemus's power. Whatever power was here was a still, peaceful thing, and Kain wondered for a moment how such a power could create an Ordeal that had killed all but one who attempted it.

Then his reflection stepped out of the mirrored wall, and Kain understood--the power here was not the author of his Ordeal, he himself was. 

His other self did not speak, only brandished his spear, and Kain responded in kind. At the first clash of their weapons, Kain knew that this other self was strong, fearfully strong. He took to the air, before the other Kain could overpower him in close quarters, but at the peak of his jump he was met by his mirror image. Spears clashed again, and Kain was pushed back, landing a few spear-lengths from his opponent. 

Kain had only a few instants to catch his breath, and then the other was on him again. He scrambled for a strategy--what could work when facing an opponent that knew every technique you did, only better? 

No strategy had ever worked the last time Kain faced such an opponent, but at the least his father had not been trying to kill him. 

Losing by inches with every exchange of blows, Kain nonetheless began to grasp the timing of his opponent's movements. He leapt again, just as the other sought to drive his lance home, and pushed off the wall to strike at an angle. But the other met his lance squarely with his shield, and Kain was again pushed back. He saw the fatal strike coming and struggled to raise his shield in time, but his arm was numb from absorbing so many blows and responded sluggishly. 

Sparks flew as the lance tip screeched off a shield, and in almost the same moment an arrow took the other Kain in the eye. The doppelganger staggered back, and disappeared. Cecil straightened and lowered his shield, shaking that arm. "Like being hit with a battering ram."

***

Even from across the room, Rosa could see Kain's shoulders stiffen with resentment as he realised that she and Cecil had intervened in his Ordeal. She crossed quickly and laid a hand on his arm, feeling a pang of sadness when her touch only increased his tension. "Kain..."

Kain did not shrug off her hand, but his shoulders slumped. While the anger drained out of him, it was replaced only by misery. "I cannot thank you."

Rosa sighed. They were off to a poor start, indeed. She knew that they had stung Kain's pride by stopping the trial, but in truth she had let fly that arrow without a moment's thought for the consequences; she would not watch her friend die for his pride. 

She looked to Cecil, but his attention was no longer on Kain, nor her. Taking the time to look around now, as she had not before, Rosa could understand why. It was like a little piece of the Moon, impossibly out of place on this lonely mountaintop. How different it must be for Cecil to look at it now, knowing what he did. 

"It was not you he doubted, Kain. We did come to fetch you home, by hook or by crook, but he has business here, as well."

Kain finally looked at her, then, and though she couldn't see it under his face plate, she just knew he was arching an eyebrow at her dubiously; she always could tell when he was giving her that look, helmet or no. 

"Father," Cecil said softly, his voice just barely carrying enough for them to hear, "Do you bide here still?"

***

Cecil could hear Kain gasp, and he glanced back at him briefly. Rosa inclined her head ever so slightly, and he nodded, turning his attention back to the mirrored wall that now held only a simple reflection. Louder, this time, and with perhaps a touch of an edge to his voice, Cecil said again, "Father."

There was a change in the energy of the room, a more focused attention, and once again KluYa's voice came as if from the air itself. "My son... you have returned."

At a loss, all his questions making a jumbled mess of this thoughts, Cecil could say only, "I have."

KluYa said nothing, but Cecil felt the energy in the room gather a little, like clouds before a storm. 

Looking at Kain again, Cecil knew which question he had to ask first. "You said it was the last of your power that you gave me. Is that truly so?"

Again KluYa was slow to respond, his voice was oddly flat and lifeless. "It was. Only my spirit remains."

Indignation rose in Cecil and he realised that he was all but shouting as he asked, "Then why does this Ordeal continue? How many more must die in a trial that can have no reward even in success?"

If something so nebulous could be startled, Cecil felt that the energy in the room was just that. But he didn't wait for KluYa to respond, his anger giving way to sorrow and guilt as he asked, "Was there ever any hope for the people who came here? If a stranger had succeeded before I came, would you ever have given them your power?"

"... No. It was meant for you alone." KluYa's voice was growing stronger, and Cecil could hear sadness in it now. "Rumours spread farther than I ever intended, and the spells powering the Ordeal are triggered by the mirror, not by me. Had there been any other way..."

_Had_ there been another way? So much had been left to chance, but could a bodiless spirit have done otherwise? Would he, or anyone, have believed the Mysidian Elder if he had told the whole truth?

There was no way to know, now, but Cecil let a little of his anger fade. "This cannot continue."

"No. You are... entirely correct." KluYa's voice now sounded almost as it had when Cecil first heard it. "I have perhaps slept here too long. The concerns of men seem distant, at times. Break the mirror, and the Ordeal will be no more."

"Wait."

***

Kain was coming to realise how little he had thought about Cecil's experiences during their journey; wrapped up in his own thoughts, he had seen the vast changes in his friend without truly understanding them. He had _known_ that Cecil was half-Lunarian, and Golbez's brother, had been momentarily floored by the revelation, but once their journey to the Moon's core had begun he thought only of resisting Zemus's influence and getting his revenge for being used so. Since their journey's end, he had thought only of his own weakness, and Cecil and Rosa's happiness. 

There was no happiness in Cecil as he spoke with his father's spirit, and beside him Rosa stood with tears of shared pain and sadness in her eyes. How much else had he missed, by running from the joy he could not share?

"Wait." When he spoke, Cecil turned to look at him again, his hand falling away from the hilt of his sword. 

"That no new power awaits me at the end of the Ordeal does not mean that there is no reward; I am a Dragoon, and wish for nothing else. I would face myself again. I will not lose a second time." Kain looked into Cecil's eyes and saw unhappiness there, yes, but no doubt, nor rancor. 

"Very well," Cecil said, "One last Ordeal."

" _Tomorrow_." Rosa's voice was firm, leaving no room for argument. "You need healing and rest." Her hand came down on his arm again, this time with an unyielding pressure he could feel even through his armour. For the first time Kain noticed the muscles in Rosa's arms--the arms of an archer, not a mage--and wondered again at how little he'd truly _seen_ his friends since their great journey began.

But her quick glance at Cecil drew his mind back to the present. Of course, she would want Cecil to have time alone with his father--or what remained of his father. That she was also not wrong about Kain's physical state was almost immaterial. 

"Come to the campsite when you're ready, Cecil." Rosa's voice gentled as she spoke to Cecil, but her grip on Kain's arm slackened not a bit. 

***

It was more work removing Kain's armour than it should have been. The leather straps that held the pieces together had dried out and started to crack, and Kain's bruised muscles had stiffened enough that he could not reach some of them himself. At one point Rosa found herself with one foot planted in the middle of Kain's back for leverage as she pulled a particularly tricky strap free of its buckle. How shocked the Baronian Court would be to see their Queen in such an undignified position. Finally, the last few pieces of plate came free. "You did not always have so little care for your equipment."

"It was always tomorrow that I would venture back to Mysidia for resupply." Kain at least sounded sufficiently dismayed as he got a good look at his own armour. 

Rosa sighed, too, at the state of what was under the armour. "And when did you run out of hi-potions?"

Kain's silence told Rosa that he didn't actually remember, and she bit her tongue to hold back another comment. Kain was perfectly capable of understanding when he'd done his equipment and his body wrong--he was only incapable of seeing his mistakes when it came to his heart. But she was perhaps less gentle than she could have been as she catalogued his injuries; a hastily cast Cure spell would do the trick for a while, but to get him back into peak condition she would need more targeted magic.

As she poked and prodded at his bruised and cut body, Rosa felt Kain go taut as a bowstring, practically vibrating with tension. She knew he had been avoiding her touch since his time under Zemus's control, but this time she would not relent. He would be alone in this battle, and any lingering injury could be the thing that cost him his life. 

In a sudden movement he pressed closer to her, one hand wrapping around her wrist. "Are you sure you should trust me so, Rosa?"

***

KluYa's voice was silent for a while after Kain and Rosa left, and Cecil found himself reluctant to be the one to break the silence. There were still too many questions he wanted to ask, but so few of them could lead anywhere productive; second-guessing the decisions of the past would gain him nothing.

Finally, KluYa spoke again. "I felt it when Zemus was defeated, and I rejoiced. But... I have little right to ask this of you, but... what of Theodor?"

It took Cecil a moment to remember that Theodor had been his brother's name, before Zemus had gotten to him. "He was freed of Zemus's influence, but chose to join the Lunarians in their sleep, rather than return."

KluYa sighed, a sound of profound sadness and relief. "Thank you."

Cecil bowed his head, the last of his anger slipping away. There truly had been no good choices left to his father, from the moment Zemus took hold of Theodor's mind. 

"The Dragoon and the young lady, they were not among your companions when you first came here. But they are your friends?"

Startled out of his reverie by the sudden change in mood, Cecil smiled. "My dearest friends, from childhood. We were raised together in Baron, but were... separated by circumstance, at the time I came here last." Cecil coughed, feeling oddly nervous as he added, "Rosa is also my wife, as it happens."

"Your wife!" KluYa seemed too delighted by this prospect to press Cecil on the matter of the "circumstances" that had separated them--or perhaps he simply tired of sad topics. 

And so Cecil told him about his life in Baron--his childhood with Kain and Rosa, ruling it now as King to Rosa's Queen and the process of rebuilding the peaceful world KluYa's gift of power had helped create.

***

The tip of a knife was pressed to Kain's throat, just hard enough to draw a shallow trickle of blood. Kain felt the blood begin to slide down his neck and tried not to swallow, all too aware of what could happen if the knife cut any deeper. He hadn't even seen the movement, nor could he imagine where Rosa had hidden the knife, but her hand was steady as she held the hilt in a sure, practiced grip. "I do not dwell on the past, but I have learned from it, Kain."

The knife disappeared back to wherever it came from, Rosa's gaze never leaving his. "But I do trust you. Even under Zemus's fell influence, you laid no hand on me." She easily pulled her wrist from his loose grip. "Why should I believe you would do so now, when your mind is your own?"

Kain sat back, putting space between himself and Rosa again. He rubbed his throat, finding himself unable to look at Rosa. "How can you forgive so easily? You know, better than even Cecil, that what I did was not all Zemus. The darkness was in me long before, just as it was in Golbez, and it is in me still."

"And, so? There is darkness in every man, and woman. No one is without cracks in their spirit, no one has lived without pain." 

"Some men have conquered their darkness. I cannot." For all his determination to face his mirror self again, Kain's doubts persisted. 

Rosa tsked, her voice going slightly acerbic as she said, "Conquered is not _gone_ , Kain."

Kain thought again about the anger and the sorrow in Cecil's voice as he spoke to the spirit of his father. Of Cecil's struggle to forgive his brother. "I am a fool."

"No more so than most." Rosa voice was tart, but Kain could hear the warmth beneath. "Kain, you cannot make feelings go away by pretending they are not there. I don't know that you can make feelings go away at all."

"But then what am I to do!" Kain felt the sting of his fingernails cutting into his palms and realised he had clenched his hands into fists. "How can I be a true friend, when in my heart..."

Cecil's voice came from behind him, soft and a little sad, "You could ask us how we feel, for a start."

***

Rosa had felt Cecil's approach, but Kain had been so caught up in his self-recrimination that he had not. She saw the stricken look on his face as he realised that Cecil had heard, if not their entire conversation, then at least the latter part. She leaned in and put a hand on his shoulder, as much to keep him there as to comfort him. 

Cecil sat on Kain's other side, effectively pinning him between them. "I had guessed already, Kain."

Kain clearly had no notion what to do with this information, so Rosa gave his shoulder an encouraging squeeze. "We both love you, you know."

"Like a brother," Kain answered, sounding more sad than resentful. 

"Very like, in some ways," Cecil said wryly, and Rosa wondered if he was thinking of the not-insignificant similarities between Kain and Golbez. "And not at all like, in others."

The look Kain gave Cecil was blank and uncomprehending, as though Cecil had begun to speak some other language. Giving in to exasperation, Rosa said, "Oh, for goodness' sake, Kain. Surely there are men among your Dragoons who choose their partners from among men and women both?"

It would be cruel to laugh at Kain, knowing he had been struggling with his pain for so long, but the look on his face tried Rosa's self-control most sorely. She patted his knee and tried to make her smile reassuring. "You needn't decide right away. But there are options beyond fleeing the Kingdom."

"For tonight, you need to rest. You've a battle to face in the morning." Cecil's cheeks were looking a little pink, and he wasn't quite looking directly at Kain as he spoke, but neither was Kain meeting _Cecil's_ gaze, so neither of them noticed the other's shyness. 

There was little more to be said until Kain came to a decision, so it was a quiet camp as they all settled in for the night.

***

It was hard to watch his friend face a potentially deadly battle alone, and Cecil had to keep forcing his hand away from the hilt of his sword. Cecil had the utmost faith in Kain, but he found it hard to let go of the paladin's role--he was meant to shield his friends and allies, not leave them to fight alone. That Rosa beside him had fidgeted almost all of the fletching off the arrow she kept taking half-out of the quiver was slightly reassuring--worrying was natural, in this situation, surely. 

Also reassuring was that the battle was noticeably less one-sided than it had been the previous day. From the sound of it the shadow Kain was striking no less hard than before, and was moving no less quickly, but Kain was evading more of those strikes, and the ones he met head-on ended in him pushing the other back just as often as the reverse.

The two Dragoons met in mid-air, their lances sending a shower of sparks to the ground as they clashed, and this time it was the dark Kain that was sent plummeting to the floor. Kain's feet touched the ground for only an instant, and then he was up again in another of those breathtaking leaps, taking advantage of his opponent's weakness to strike the final blow. 

Cecil held his breath as Kain drove his lance down with all the force of his jump. He had no idea how the Ordeal would work for Kain, with becoming a Paladin not the goal. Would the death of his dark twin serve as a victory?

But then the fallen Dragoon twitched, and Cecil noticed that Kain had struck with almost unfathomable accuracy, pinning the other to the floor through the side of his armour, rather than straight through his chest. 

***

Struggling to catch his breath, Kain knelt beside his fallen opponent. The mirror image's eyes were dark and unreadable, giving Kain no clues as to whether this would work. Relying on nothing but faith in Rosa's words and his own instincts, Kain extended a hand to his other self. "Conquered, but not gone. I accept my darkness."

The other Dragoon clasped his hand firmly, and then vanished into bright shards of light. 

"Well done! Your strength of spirit is proven!" The voice rang out throughout the crystal chamber, and Kain closed his eyes in relief. Exhausted to his very core, he nonetheless managed to force himself back to his feet, only to nearly topple again as two people slammed into him, slapping him on the back and congratulating him. For the first time in years, Rosa's touch left him feeling no insidious twist of guilt. Cecil's, meanwhile... was a thing to think about later, now that they'd put the idea in his head. 

"Dragoon." Cecil and Rosa backed away slightly as the voice spoke again, solemnly this time. "Where is your dragon?"

Kain could only answer honestly. "He was my father's before he was mine, and has grown old. It would have killed him to continue." 

There was an oddly thoughtful sort of silence, and then Cecil's father spoke again. "Then perhaps there is one last thing I can offer, after all. I would speak with my son, one last time."

Cecil's head came up sharply, at that, but the look on his face held no true surprise. 

"My son... Cecil. I love you, but I have come to understand that I must go. I have delayed my passing too long, and with my power gone I fear I will become something fell indeed, in time. If you had not come again, I might not have noticed until it was too late. For that, and for speaking with me so frankly, I thank you. You are everything I could have hoped for in a son, and more."

Cecil shook his head, his voice unsteady as he replied, "I understand."

"Though we will not speak again, I will be with you still, through your friend. Dragoon, accept my last blessing."

"I... accept." Kain was not sure what he was agreeing to, but he felt no ill intent in the Lunarian spirit. 

The room lit with the cool glow of the moon, brighter and brighter, until it was too much and Kain had to cover his eyes. There was an immense crack, and the light faded. When Kain could see again, the great mirror was blackened and split, and sitting in the middle of the crystal floor was a large egg. 

***

Rosa was not at all sure what had happened, until she saw Kain rush to kneel beside something on the floor. In an instant he had peeled off his gauntlets and was gently, carefully inspecting the... egg?

"What on earth?" Rosa crouched beside him, and saw Cecil do the same. 

"It's a dragon egg," Kain said with an odd reverence. "But this sheen... I've never seen the like."

Startled, Rosa looked to Cecil for answers, but he seemed as baffled as she was. But after a few heartbeats, his eyes widened. "Ah, perhaps... like His Majesty?"

Rosa remembered, then, the Eidolon that the King of Baron had become in death. "It _was_ on the Moon that we encountered Bahamut." If a human man could become an Eidolon in death, perhaps a Lunarian could become a dragon? "Rydia might have answers for us."

Kain looked doubtful, and or maybe it was more like suspicious. "Perhaps. But he will not go to the land of the Eidolons."

Understanding Kain's concern, then, Rosa nodded her support. "That was not his desire. I'm certain his last wishes will be respected, even if he is an Eidolon of a sort."

"Here, wrap it in this." Cecil held out his cloak, and Kain immediately swaddled the egg in its folds. "You cannot fight while you carry him. We'll see you, and him, safe to the foot of the mountain...." Cecil trailed off there, not pushing, but clearly hoping.

Kain gave the egg one last, wondering look, before tucking a fold of the cloak over the top of it and picking it up. Looking to Cecil, and then to Rosa, Kain nodded and said, "And home to Baron."

Hope blossomed in Rosa's heart. "And home."

-end-

**Author's Note:**

> Zemus calling Theodor "birthed from womb of dragon's corpse" helped inspire the final bit of the fic, but obviously I ran with it AND HOW.


End file.
